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The Paris Air Show 2015: Wake-up Call for the Embedded Computing Industry

Posted by Vincent Chuffart|
June 30, 2015

The 51st International Paris Air Show, held at Le Bourget Airport from 15-21 June 2015 was a record breaking event: With more than 351000 visitors the Show again confirmed this is the place to be when you are part of this incredibly vibrant industry. Again the PR war for new orders between Airbus and Boeing was center stage of the news, even though the volume is not like it had been in 2013. But this was expected. Demoing the A400M just weeks after a serious accident in Spain was a bold move from Airbus Military.

The last stage of configuration is the most critical

The military plane crash should be a wakeup call for all of us in the embedded computing industry. The first investigations of the crash show a serious mistake in installing a new version of firmware in the engine controllers. The firmware installed OK, alas the engine parameter table was not complete, which leaded to a power loss on 3 of 4 engines at a critical take-off time. Let’s remember how important it is in all embedded computing to have solid commissioning procedures. Whatever the intrinsic qualities of an embedded computer are, this last stage of configuration is the most critical. And this is exactly why Kontron, in trying to be the ‘deployment friendly supplier’, is very active on this front. Key customers of VME and VPX boards and Embedded Computers now benefit from a configuration built in test solution which is unmatched on the market: System PBIT. Power-on Built-in Test (PBIT) solutions improve the reliability, safety and security of mission critical installations by providing a modular and scalable set of uniform test routines to assess the health status and configuration for both boards and complete systems. With its SYSTEM wide “capture” concept, Kontron offers an innovative method to PBIT, so far unmatched in the Embedded SBC world. It is available for all current and future Kontron 3U and 6U VPX/OpenVPX™ and VME processor boards (if you want to know more, please check out our Whitepaper (LINK).

With its Cobalt, Ace Flight and Trace, Kontron presented the best solutions for this coming decade to the industry segments which are the most sensitive to solution extended life cycles. Given the pressure of agile acquisition initiatives, as well as the need to quickly and economically meet Proof of Concept (PoC) requirements, defense contractors now more than ever need pre-validated system solutions that can provide a powerful competitive advantage. Price pressure and the need to accelerate time-to-market call for modularity in design concepts – and systems such as Kontron’s COBALT are providing a proven alternative to building the system from scratch. Defense contractors are able to significantly reduce development resources using a trusted platform that both optimizes performance and simplifies the design process.

Passenger comfort at its best

But to return to the current topic: All in all, this year’s Paris Air Show was a very active show, with dozens of key customer meetings and new alliance being discussed, from wireless content distribution to passengers, to innovative operational approaches related to the Internet of Things paradigms: Datability, Serviceability, Monetization and Predictive Maintenance. Moreover, new Passenger comfort solutions were being demonstrated (photo). This one takes the noise cancelling technology to yet another level, even adding to the ‘anti sound’ some well being sound waves for relaxation purposes.

Did you also visit the Paris Air Show 2015? If so, what were your impressions?

Thank you!

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About Kontron

Kontron is a global leader in embedded computing technology (ECT). As a part of technology group S&T, Kontron offers a combined portfolio of secure hardware, middleware and services for Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 applications. With its standard products and tailor-made solutions based on highly reliable state-of-the-art embedded technologies, Kontron provides secure and innovative applications for a variety of industries. As a result, customers benefit from accelerated time-to-market, reduced total cost of ownership, product longevity and the best fully integrated applications overall.

Kontron is a listed company. Its shares are traded in the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on other exchanges under the symbol "KBC".